SWF single head issue

David Epperson · January 5th, 2011, 04:26 AM

This is my first post so by way of introduction my name is David Epperson. My family and I are missionaries to Malawi Africa. My wife is a clinical director here and I am a teacher/small business owner. We support ourselves by teaching and running a couple of small businesses one of which is a small print shop that does embroidery. We own a single head SWF and like it quite a bit. Recently the machine has developed a grinding noise in the head. We bought the machine in South Africa so having it serviced here in Malawi is either very expensive to fly someone here or non-existant so I am turning here for help.

Attached is a 6 second video showing the grinding noise that the SWF has developed. The noise occurs after the thread has been cut and the head moves from the far right of an artwork to the far left of the artwork (artwork being 3" x 3"). All other moves in the middle of the artwork are done with no problem. The worst sound which became an error code 300 was when needle 2 was selected to end at the far right and needle 1 was selected to begin at the far left. The sound was a very long and loud grinding sound (like plastic gears slipping) and the head being unable to finish its move to the left resulting in needle mis-allignment.

For the next shirt we stopped the machine after needle 2 was finished, reset the design, and fast forwarded (jumped) to needle 1. The head then moved from the far right to the far left with no issues suggesting the issue only occurs during the embroidery process.

We also ran each needle setting through a series of moves from 1 to 2 to 3 etc etc and multiple variations as well with no grinding sound. It appears the head moves very well through its full range of motion except during the transition from far right to far left during the embroidery process. We have oiled the machine every day and sometimes on heavy use twice a day.

If there is anyone that would have a suggestion as to what to do I would be much obliged. I can be contacted at [email address]

if the video did not come through as an attachment very well and I can email it directly if needed. If there is a service tech that I can pay who would have the ability to Skype so I could walk through the issue in real time I can do that as well.

Yours,
David Epperson
JDS Print

shellyky · January 5th, 2011, 08:30 AM

when i get that sound, this is what i do with my SWF 601--this may or may not fix your problem, it usually fixes mine. below procedure is just a typical greasing of the color change wheel.

you should take the metal box/cover off behind the tension knobs to expose the color change gear. (4 screws) this is the box behind the tension knobs which has the knob on the right which you can use to manually go move the needles thru the colors.

Take that cover off, take a Q-tip and remove all of the grease on the actual "wheel" and on the 2-3 gears on the right. use a q-tip and apply new grease (should have come with machine) to the wheel and new grease into the gears. use the knob to cycle thru the colors as you're doing this to work the new grease in. on the wheel you'll want to focus on the side walls of the groove, not in the groove itself--dont put too much on there (note the small shafts that slide into the groove as you turn the wheel, those shouldn't be greasy.)

When you're done with that, use the wheel to move it all the way to the #1 spot, press needle #1. it will give you an error that you're not positioned on #1. use the knob to finely dial it over a tad until the error stops, you're aligned again. cycle through a couple needles to make sure it's lined up.

AlisonB · January 5th, 2011, 09:49 AM

Hi David. If you don't come right with greasing your colour change gear then you could e-mail Casper Bresler. He is a technician with Bernina in Johannesburg and has been very helpful when I have had queries. His e-mail is [email address]

Good luck - let us know how it goes.
Alison

David Epperson · January 5th, 2011, 03:33 PM

Thank you for the replies. The greasing of the gears did the trick as far as I can tell. We crossed referenced the suggestions with the owners manual and took it apart to grease the wheels. We didn't have extra grease so we just recycled the built up grease in the gear. Grease here is hard to locate. Hopefully we can get someone to Johannesburg to find some. Anyways, the head moves right and left nice and smooth now so thanks again.

David Epperson

shellyky · January 5th, 2011, 03:36 PM

glad to be able to help. i usually check that grease every couple of months--alot of times you can just tell the machine is getting louder on the color changes...that is usually a sign.

Tom G · November 2nd, 2014, 11:29 AM

new color change potentiometer common problem with compacts